Could your anxiety be making you smarter?

By Kelly Jirsa |
December 21, 2015

Studies show a correlation between worrying and high intelligence.

Could your anxiety be making you smarter?

Two studies have revealed that there is a correlation between people who worry or suffer from anxiety and their verbal intelligence skills. In one study it was documented that people who are diagnosed with Generalised Anxiety Disorder also had higher IQs.

Scientists think that anxious people may have higher intelligence due to three main reasons:

Overthinking, reliving past events and worrying about the future makes the brain more active.

Anxious people have more white matter. White matter in the brain is associated with neuron connectivity, the more you have the faster the processing capacity therefore speeding up your mental processes.

Anxious people are more likely to consider outcomes and prepare for the worse case scenarios. In an evolutionary sense anxious people are better at forming plans to help themselves and their offspring survive.